Effective Methods for Software Testing, Third Edition

Chapter 13. Step 7: Post-Implementation Analysis

A significant portion of IT resources is expended testing application systems. A reasonable question for management to ask is, “Are we getting our money’s worth from this testing?” Unfortunately, many IT functions cannot objectively answer that question.

This chapter describes the more common objectives for measuring testing and then recommends criteria for performing those measurements. The chapter explains who should evaluate performance, identifies the common approaches, and then recommends testing metrics for the assessment process.

Overview

Measuring a test’s effectiveness serves two purposes: It evaluates the performance of the testers and, perhaps more important, enables an IT organization to modify its testing process. Identifying the ineffective aspects of testing isolates the areas for improvement. The two evaluation testing objectives of assessing individual performance and improving the test process are closely related; indeed, the same evaluation criteria can be used for both purposes. These major evaluation objectives are achieved through the collection of data about more detailed evaluation objectives. The objective of assessment is to identify problems so that corrective action can be taken. Therefore, the evaluation will be looking for the negative aspects of testing. The absence of a negative factor represents a positive evaluation.

Note

The evaluation of the test process is normally based on accumulating many individual ...